Members of the Sunshine Coast joined communities across Canada last week for a unique, cross-country, multi-party town hall to call for the establishment of a national Youth Climate Corps (YCC) program. The event, hosted by the Climate Emergency Unit and MP Laurel Collins (NDP), featured a panel of MPs including Elizabeth May (Green Party), Adam van Koeverden (Liberal Party), and Blake Dejarlais (NDP), as well as Seth Klein, Juan Vargas Alba and Bushra Asghar from the Climate Emergency Unit (CEU), and youth climate activists at in-person watch parties across the nation.
MP Laurel Collins presented motion M-105 last December, calling on the government to deal with the climate emergency through a grant societal undertaking. “A Youth Climate Corps could train hundreds of thousands of youth for careers in the well-paying green jobs of the future,” and would be a “transformative public program, signaling to young people and society at large that we are genuinely in climate emergency mode.”
The YCC would offer thousands of 17 to 35 year olds living wage jobs and training to deal with climate impacts, strengthen community and environmental resilience, and build infrastructure and efficiency to reduce our GHG emissions. It also has the potential to “help Canada address many of our gravest challenges, including inequity, youth mental health, reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, the housing crisis, shortages of skilled labour, and lack of opportunity.” Polling shows that a majority of Canadian adults support the idea of creating a YCC.
Twenty MPs have seconded the motion, including our local MP Patrick Weiler, and it will be sent to Prime Minister Trudeau on May 22 of this year.
The Sunshine Coast watch party was organized by the Jellyfish Project, a charity that combines the power of live music with engaging presentations, inspiring youth and adults alike to take effective action to protect our environment and solve the climate crisis. Participants were generously hosted by Bonnie and Michael Klein.
To learn more and join the movement to establish a YCC, visit climateemergencyunit.ca/climatecorps. To make this system-change level action happen, we need all hands (and all ages) on deck! You can help by submitting a personal letter of support, or encouraging your organization (school, work, council, non-profit) to send a motion of support, just as the Union of BC Indian Chiefs and a growing number of municipal councils have done.
